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Worcestershire Inhabitants
(1280)The Worcestershire Lay Subsidy roll of about 1280 lists lay inhabitants of each township of the shire and of each ward of the city of Worcester, with the amount of tax payable by each. Latin.

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Worcestershire Inhabitants
(1327)The Worcestershire Lay Subsidy roll of the 1st year of king Edward III lists lay inhabitants of each township of the shire and of the five boroughs of Droitwich (Wych), Dudley, Evesham, Kidderminster and Worcester, with the amount of tax payable by each. The roll was edited for the Worcestershire Historical Society by the Reverend F. J. Eld, and published in 1895.

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Norfolk Feet of Fines
(1307-1485)Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in Norfolk. These abstracts were prepared by Walter Rye.

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Secretary of State's Papers
(1600)The letters and papers of sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State, deal with all manner of government business in England, Ireland and abroad.

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Middlesex Sessions
(1549-1603)This printed calendar collates a number of surviving records from Middlesex sessions for the period. Principally these are the Gaol Delivery Rolls (G. D. R.) and the General Sessions of the Peace Rolls (G. S. O. P. R.). Both series cover general criminal indictments (bills) together with the recognizances of the witnesses to attend; but the Gaol Delivery Rolls, by their very nature, tend to deal with the more serious cases - felonies where the accused could not be released on bail. The General Sessions rolls also include the sheriff's lists of bailiffs, sub-bailiffs, high and petty constables in the shire; writs of venire facias for production of jurors, writs of capias, lists of jurors, jury-panels &c. The Gaol Delivery Rolls also include coroners' inquests, writs of supersedeas, and memoranda of proclamations. Special inquiries are recorded in separate Sessions of Oyer and Terminer (S. O. T.) rolls and Inquest or Inquisition rolls (I. R.) Although coverage is good, none of the sequences of rolls for this period is complete. A peculiarity of this calendar is that in the case of actual incidents, the date given at the start of each entry is the date that the incident was alleged to have taken place (for instance, 1 June 11 Elizabeth (1569) in the sample scan) rather than the date of the court proceedings.

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Middlesex Sessions
(1603-1625)Incidents from the Middlesex Sessions Books. These are abstracts of sessional orders, minutes of criminal cases, memoranda and other entries of record taken from the three volumes of Gaol Delivery Register, four volumes of Sessions of Peace Register and two volumes of Process Books of Indictments for the county of Middlesex from the reign of king James I. The references at the end of each item indicate the volume in question, the abbreviations being G. D. for Gaol Delivery, S. P. for Sessions of Peace, and S. O. T. for Session of Oyer and Terminer; occasionally preceded by S. for Special or G. for general, or followed by R. for Roll or Reg. for Register. It should be noted that, in the case of 'true bills' or indictments, the abstract starts with the date on which the offence took place, the date of the conviction &c. being at the end of the entry.

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Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1626)The Privy Council of Charles I was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters

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Inhabitants of Cambridge
(1504-1635)Cambridge comprised fourteen ancient parishes, plus the university (which was extra-parochial), in the diocese of Ely. The church of St Mary the Great (as opposed to St Mary the Less) in the Market Place (juxta forum) has churchwardens' accounts surviving from 1504 onwards. Those from 1504 to 1635 were transcribed by J. E. Foster for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society and published in 1905. The two churchwardens were chosen annually: the previous year's churchwardens each chose another parishioner: those two then each chose three other parishioners: the resulting eight then chose the new year's churchwardens, the wardens of the Light of the Rood, and the wardens of the Mass of Jesus. Auditors were also chosen, usually out of the eight, to examine all the wardens' accounts at the end of the year. The churchwardens' accounts are largely concerned with the costs of repair of the church and its furnishings, and include the names of tradesmen and workmen. Each Easter a rate called Easter money was raised was raised from all householders in the parish, and additional rates are occasionally levied for unusual expenses, such as steeple reconstruction. These 'Easter book' lists give a complete list of householders for the parish, excepting the poor. The church's income also included the rents from some houses in the parish, and the names of the tenants appear. The offices of the Light of the Rood and the Mass of Jesus were abolished during the Reformation. The accounts of the Light of the Rood, i. e., for candles burnt before the crucifix, often include a list of sums received for funerary diriges (dirges) for the year, from which the year of death of the more prosperous parishioners can be traced in this early period.

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Massachusetts Bay freemen
(1642-1649)The Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England was established by royal charter in 1629, the area being settled from 1630 onwards; the charter was withdrawn in 1684. The colony at this period did not include Plymouth or Maine. This court book, compiled by the Increase Nowell, company secretary, also includes memoranda concerning land grants and disputes, official appointments, &c. It was edited by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, and printed by order of the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1853. Months are given in the dating in Puritan fashion, i. e. March is 1mo, April 2mo, &c. The lists of names of those taking oaths as freemen of the colony were printed separately, and are listed here.

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Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills: Hampshire: Strays
(1658)William Brigg compiled abstracts of all the wills in Register "Wootton" of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The abstracts of those proved in 1658 were published by him in 1894. The court's main jurisdiction was central and southern England and Wales, as well as over sailors &c dying abroad. We have re-indexed the whole volume, county by county, for both testators and strays (legatees, witnesses and other persons mentioned in the abstracts).